We have lived in El Salvador for an amazing five years, and before that we lived on the tropical island of Penang in Malaysia. Last year we decided that it was time to move on and I started the huge task of clearing out 4-5 years of detritus. We had arrived as a newly married couple and were leaving as a family with our four year old son and all the paraphernalia that a child demands.

Last August, as soon as the aforementioned child was happily attending his kinder I tackled the huge amount of stuff that we had accumulated. First to go was the baby equipment and random crap that was stacked in the garage. As the year whizzed past I had regular sales - not that you could see the house looking any emptier!

By December Papacito had secured a new job for the following summer - in Bratislava, Slovakia. Bratishwere? was the comment that most people made. Just in case you don't know I will explain.....you have heard of Czechoslovakia? and Prague? Well when Czecho and Slovakia decided to part company and get divorced the newly formed Czech Republic kept Prague as its capital and Slovakia got Bratislava. And no - its nothing to do with Slovenia - that is part of what was once Yugoslavia! So, we are going to be living in Central Europe, around 40 minutes from Vienna and within easy reach of many European countries - civilisation and shopping at last after a five years of living in a retail challenged country!

As soon as Christmas was over I carried on with my clearing and sorting.....and fast forward four months and I can finally see the end of the tunnel - providing somedundo doesn't disconnect the electricity!

I have sold most of everything that we have to sell, I have found someone to take over our house, written to Tigo to arrange disconnection of our TV and internet and had arranged our shipping. Then the company reassessed and doubled the price, and I called in another company to get an alternative. Two weeks after our second assessment I am still waiting for a quote and neither companies are answering their emails! Deep breath and SIGH! I should be used to this level of service by now - but I'm not - and it winds me up!! Whatever happens we have a date booked with company number one, providing they don't forget, and I guess we will just have to suck it in and pay whatever they charge us!

My stress levels have increased considerably over the last few weeks and I don't see them returning to normal much this side of Xmas!

I'm off to have a large gin and tonic - purely for the preservation of what little sanity I have left you understand! I'll be back soon with more packing tales!

Oh, and in case you are wondering - the two intertwined flags are the Salvadoran and Slovak flags. Cool eh?

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Expat Mamasita

I am Expat Mamasita, a British expat living overseas. Wife to Papicito and mother to the ever twirling whirlwind otherwise known as Chiquitito.

It goes without saying that I love to write about all things child, expat and travel related, and in a bid to retain my personal identity and sanity I also love reading and writing about cookery, craft, jewellery and fashion related topics.

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